Flatness is God: Art + Design + Process + Picture Plane Theory + X, Y

by William Upski Wimsatt

Flatnessisgod is about the basic practice of seeing and understanding how we construct and consume a picture plane. It is the graphic equivalent of the artist's book. Ryan McGinness subverts commercialism through oversaturating the eye with public domain imagery. Well respected and known throughout the commercial world, his clients include IBM, SEGA, Sire, MTV and Geffen. Contents include logo development, Graffiti tags, Art Haiku Alien Conspiracy...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1887128344
• ISBN13: 9781887128346
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press
• Length: 253 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.4" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

What your design should be more like

McGuiness tells the designers of the world to stop for a few brief seconds and consider the melange of visual stimuli that we wade through every day. He both shows us how and asks us why we so easily idendify with the vernacular. The ideas in this book are simply and effectively illustrated and serve as a modern suplement the other great graphic design references such as Gregg Barryman's Notes on Graphic Design.

THE NEXT WARHOL

flatnessisgod - things you can do with lines and dots, crowns and shredding, mixing clip era media with social commentary by the strategic placement of graphic elements. logos, logos, logos. the next warhol of sorts? perhaps. the next saville? some would say. but what is reinvented by ryan's work is an intellectual mysticism that can affront, obey, and even disregard multicultural values in one solitary statement. this book is full of em. brilliance with relevance. not an easy thing to achieve, but mcginness has done it... again and again.

Delicious, delightful, all fun and not frightful!

This book will help lure to reading youngsters who may not have previously been very interested. The sense of humor crosses age boundaries. I was surprised at the target age, because I'm 63 and can't wait to read it to my grandchildren. My husband and children are not "safe" either, but I know they will enjoy it, too! A review I read somewhere on this book said "not for those with limited library funds." I couldn't disagree more. Fun reading is healthy and worth the investment for all ages. ("You go, Ryan!") I can thank PBS in Norfolk, VA again for calling my attention to a pleasure I might otherwise have missed.

Artistically fresh and clever! Fun!

The author's artistic imagination was working overtime - amazing! I found myself studying a design, mezmerized. At a glance, simplistic, but many individual designs came together and I couldn't stop searching the overall design. Genius!

ryanmcginness is god!

WOW! If this is truly the brainchild of one man than Ryan McGinness has not only proven his theory that flatnessisgod but he has himself become a god in my eyes. McGinness' bible is a fascinating trip behind the creative process of a genius designer. I can't recommend this book enough to anyone from the novice to the seasoned vet who has any interest in the creative process of an artist. If flatnessisgod I am its shepherd.